Brian Harper

Hi there. I'm a design leader and people manager living in Colorado. Today, I lead an organization of designers, researchers, and managers working on productivity platforms at Workday. In the past, I've worked at Roadie, Big Nerd Ranch, and Mailchimp, and played violin with Takénobu. Thanks for stopping by.

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Selected Work

Workday

Enterprise Product Design & Management (2016 – Present)

Productivity Technology Logo

I currently lead the Productivity Technology UX organization based primarily in Boulder, CO. My team is responsible for the Productivity Suite, a set of familiar tools directly connected to Workday data, and other platform experiences that power Workday applications.

Highlights so far include:

  • Growing and leading an org of 17 uniquely talented designers, researchers, and managers
  • Working in an embedded model — designers and researchers partnering closely with product management and development
  • Guiding an acquired product to fully integrate with Workday's design system and data while running on a modern tech stack
  • Building and launching 10 new products for Workday's 65 million users worldwide
  • Continuously pushing for consumer-grade experiences in the enterprise by delivering modern React-based interfaces as a replacement for legacy UI

Read more about the Productivity Suite on the Workday Blog.

Roadie

iOS, Android, & Web Product Design  (2015 – 2016)

Roadie Sender Onboarding

I led the Product Design team at Roadie, the on-the-way delivery network. Through user interviews, analytics, support tickets, and constant we continuously found ways to improve the experience of sending and driving with Roadie. My role was to contribute design from concept to implementation while empowering the team to deliver better work through critiques, workflow, and collaboration. I also led a bi-weekly company-wide presentation of our team's work to promote transparency and collaboration throughout the entire organization.

Roadie was acquired by UPS in 2021.

Highlights include:

  • Redesign of the entire driver experience leading to increased delivery speed and reliability
  • New app onboarding leading to increased signups and gigs created
  • Designed and built a web app for enterprise customers to create and manage shipments more efficiently

Check out the iOS AppAndroid App, and roadie.com.

Takénobu

Music & Print Design (2010 – 2016)

Takenobu

Takénobu is the moniker of Atlanta-based cellist Nick Ogawa. I first saw him play when my band, Blee's Company, opened for him in 2010. A few months later when my band stopped playing, Nick gave me a call and asked if I wanted to play violin with him. From that moment until I moved away in 2016, I had the pleasure of recording albums and playing live shows as part of the band. Every band needs t-shirts and posters, and I had the opportunity to design some of those as well.

Listen to Takénobu.

Speaking, Teaching, & Writing

Design for Developers

Presented at CocoaHeads ATL

How Designers and Developers Can Work Together

Presented at CocoaConf 2013

Mobile Design Workshop

Created the first version of this course at Big Nerd Ranch and delivered around the world

Six Design Principles

Written for stable/kernel

My App Design Setup

Written on Medium